Longwinded Departure

What struck out the most about this game's description as I was browsing the featured games list was "Survival RPG." It wasn't Survival Horror, Survival Horror RPG, or an RPG with a dark setting, like I'm used to seeing everywhere, so I decided to look a little more into this game's Image tab, Characters tab, and one no-spoiler review to get an idea of what I'd get myself into, and what REALLY got me hooked was how there were two arcs, and the first ACTUALLY MATTERS! The only other game that I've played with multiple arcs with all of them being important was Tales of Graces F, and while I'm not going to compare this to that game, I was anticipating how things would play out.

Even though it's recommended to play Survivor or Casual for the whole game before doing a playthrough on Heaven or Hell mode, I decided to go for the hardest difficulty anyway because I like to challenge hardest modes to see just how well the developers make the difficulty tougher. I've played games with highest difficulty modes that aren't much harder than the norm, others that are easy with prior knowledge but still manageable on a first playthrough with enough experimentation, and games that think more grinding and perfection = more difficulty = debatable measurements of fun.

For the life of me, I could not find any volume level changing controls, so I had to lower my laptop’s volume so I wouldn’t be blasted with sound from the game. If there’s ever a good option menu for any game, there needs to be volume level changing options. Tons of AAA and indie games have them.

From here on, I'll be having a paraphrased critique of the childhood arc, so spoilers ahead for those that don't wished to be spoiled! Also, please don’t feel like I’m attacking your game. I just have very blunt critiques that may sound harsh.

Ok, first with the opening before we see the obligatory title drop. I dislike openings that don't make any bit of sense unless we play further because it adds confusion on my interest scale, so the amount of interest I had plummets. Games that do this sort of thing need to pick up what interest I lost ASAP.

As soon as I got in control of Arya, I immediately opened my main menu because I'd like to get accommodated with it since I'll probably be seeing a lot of the main menu in my playthrough, and once I got to the Status screen, many questions popped in my head. Why have "To Next Level" if you have "Next Level Total Exp?" Is there a reason that I should keep track of both? Arya's hit rate is 50%!? And I thought Fire Emblem had enough worries for hitting enemies! What's a Target Rate if that's not also hit rate?

I understand that it'd be very text heavy and time consuming to actually have chapter-length chapters for in-game books, but at least put in a paragraph's worth to be realistic. Chapter 3 of Hero of Nothing had 2 sentences. If I had to guess why it was so short, it'd probably be a children's story instead of a novel, but if it was, I'd like it to be told that it was a children's storybook, a short story, or a fable and the “chapter 1, 2, 3” should be replaced with “part/page 1, 2, 3” since chapters aren’t usually in short stories.

An old man asked me if I could go pick up those raspberries growing on the bush, so I did, but I only got 1 when it looked like there were at least 4... I know this is a minor nitpick, but I really hope this isn't an omen for potential ludonarrative dissonance. Oh wait, in the item menu, it shows 1 stack of 2 raspberries, contrary to the item obtained window that said I got 1... Weird, but I'll keep in mind that the item obtained window is not always specific. Ok, after reading that it has 2 uses, I think I initially misunderstood. It's not 1 stack of 2 raspberries; it's 1 raspberry that can be used 2 times. Not often do I find that kind of item system in an RPG, so it trips me up when I do. I'm sure item separation in this manner will definitely come into play for battles based on similar games that I've seen/played.

With Myra in tow, I tried going back and talk to the same people and examined certain objects/doors, but only the Orias Chapel door triggered unique dialogue. I'm a bit disappointed with the lost potential for plenty of fluff text, but it's not horrible that you didn't add that much.

I somehow stumbled upon Arya's hidden candy stash while examining random stuff since I was able to go through the destroyed school wall two spaces north of the rightmost repairman or should I say, repariman if you try entering the school's door. Typos are tough to be free from, I know. I hope not that many more are in this game, especially after reading how many you fixed in the changelog. Anyway, very weird place to hide the candy stash for the player since I haven't come across any clues to its location as of yet.

Wow, for a first fight, I can see that SP will be something to keep my eyes on like a hawk from how easy it is to spend it. Just a normal attack from Alex uses 1 SP, and he only has 12 total, so that's basically 12 attacks at most without recovering SP. I loved how Alex commentates the victory screen. More games need to do that.

When you talk to the left kiyoma guard at night when Arya has to return the bucket, he says the kiyoma is “suppossed” to give light. Only 1 “s” after the “o.”

...Everyone’s got a case of the coughs besides Arya and Alex in the second day. Really odd way to foreshadow if it’s actually foreshadowing.

Something to fix is that if you talk to Arya’s mom after you give back Snuggy and have Myra in your party, Arya’s mom will talk as if you’re still trying to find Alex to get the bucket of water, and the rest of the dialogue for that conversation follows. If this matters at all for trying to replicate this event, I did not talk to Cieran in the child arc, did not tell Alex about what happened at night, and I did get the slingshot in the destroyed school.

So, I did pretty damn well against that beefy flower-looking monster that had its own cutscene, but then I get owned by two bats in a random encounter just because Alex kept missing with his Clobber from the Big Stick weapon that apparently lowers his 100% accuracy to 90%, which can only be checked in the status screen instead of the equipment or item menu, and even though 90% sounds big, this seems to work off Fire Emblem jacked up percentages, so it’s no wonder I missed a lot. Instead of the Big Stick, I’ll be sticking to the Slingshot. Since there was no save point, it’s time to go through this dungeon from the beginning again and hopefully juke past all the enemies that I could again. Really wish that SP recovery flower place south of the flower monster was also a one-time save point. Would’ve saved a lot of time. Also, I noticed the red exclamation point icon appeared over an invisible enemy sprite that was where I last fought the flower monster, so did it just respawn with no visible sprite, see me through the walls, and try chasing me not ten seconds after I beat it? It didn’t matter by that point since I was long gone, but if this happens in the future with other enemies, and I need to backtrack to that invisible enemy’s location, that’s gonna be a problem.

I’ve decided to restart my playthrough, still on the Heaven or Hell mode, because I think I’ll need that milk in a bottle item for healing Alex’s HP/SP 100% after fighting the flower enemy. I used it as soon as I finished the first fight in the game with the 3 bullies because I expected a bully rematch fight soon but with Arya and Myra in the party, so I didn’t want Alex to die in the first turn of that potential fight, and the lady who gave me milk said she’d refill the bottle with more milk if I finished it, so I thought it was fine to use willy-nilly. Unfortunately, every opportunity I tried to enter that lady’s house, either Alex or Arya would stop me for some silly reason. Alex thinks we don’t have time to barge in people’s houses or we have to go play somewhere else while Arya didn’t think going into other houses at night was a good idea, but then Arya is allowed in houses during the morning and rewarded in doing so multiple times, so why should the night be any different? In real life, it doesn’t matter what time a stranger trespasses into a random house. It’s obviously not respectable for other people’s privacy. In RPGs, it’s ok for most games because developers want players to explore and learn more of the in-game setting since not everyone wants to listen to an in-game news channel or browse an in-game web for world news since games are usually made for escapism from reality. When games become too closely tied to real life in some ways, it pulls us away from immersing ourselves into the game world and enjoying it.

Ok, I somehow managed to juke every single random encounter until the next save point, which wasn’t that far past the flower enemy… Something really cool was that the resting spot saved me since there was an enemy hot on my heels, but once I rested, it froze in its tracks, so I could walk around it. Because I didn’t fight the flower enemy, though, I did skip past 1 Raspberry and 1 Rock, so that sucks.

I know it’s a small detail, but I wish you showed the windows while we’re inside a house to be dark if it’s night time instead of being super bright. The room doesn’t have to be dark because maybe there’s a ceiling light or something that illuminates the whole place, but if that was the case, the window would still be dark if outside is dark. I just noticed this from the cutscene with Arya waking up to Alex saying he’ll take a leak, but I bet I could’ve noticed this if I returned to Arya and Alex’s room during the night that Arya returned the bucket.

I have a feeling that I’m about to get a bad ending because I’m being told what’s happening with a black screen and ominous music. Also, Arya getting beaten by her father for saying Alex might’ve gone to the ruins to search for Cieran just because they overheard him talking on an echo ruby doesn’t sound justifiable enough to make me agree with Arya that she deserved that beating. In fact, that just makes me dislike Arya and her father. I think you meant to spell “obidient” as “obedient” in this part, too. I don’t understand what the heck Arya means with “my heart of hearts” here. It’s almost as if she played way too much Kingdom Hearts and thinks that she’s Sora.

Yep… I did get a bad ending on my first try without intentionally trying to get it. I don’t know about you, but I’ve played plenty of games that reward players on being goody two-shoes and others that really punish players for doing the opposite of what you’re told to do, so I really wanted Arya to be a good girl just like how almost every NPC praised her to be. So, I don’t have much of a motivation to betray that reputation besides Alex talking about investigating Cieran to see if he’s doing anything bad. We technically don’t know if he will do something bad at this point, and even if he was, there’s no reason for little kids to be poking their nose into such things when we can barely fight off freshly spawned monsters. If we were older and more capable of fighting, then sure, I’d probably take up Alex’s word to investigate, despite Arya’s reputation, because we’d have the potential to be heroes or at least combat-ready detectives.

Alright, thank goodness you had a save point right before the big decision point of whether or not I tell Alex about Cieran after Alex sees him for the first time because I gotta tell him about Cieran to not get the bad ending, and it seems like there’s ANOTHER opportunity to get the bad ending if I choose to not go with Alex as a good girl, so I’ll keep being a rebel and decide to go with him and somehow not get killed with Alex or incoherent as Myra.

Wow, I can’t believe I got something useful for examining the cupboard inside Arya’s house. Again, I’m blocked by Alex for not going inside the house of milk, but at least I still kept it instead of using it. However, I still feel annoyed that there’s no way of refilling it still.

Ooooooookay, I wish the ruins interior was lit up some more because wow, sneaking looks like a pain. Oh hey, the first three steps north got an enemy I barely saw alerted. Great. *Leaves and re-enters ruins to not get in a fight* I feel like I’ll be save scumming a lot.

I can’t believe I was able to run past the enemy close to the stairs leading up to the 2nd floor. Anyway, I went a bit west to see two pink beds, two opened chests, and an enemy that got alerted to me while I’m on the other side of a wall with no openings that the enemy could possibly have heard me. I swear, that thing better not somehow find its way around the wall as I’m navigating.

Well, it seems my juking days are gone because I thought I could dodge the flower enemy by going northeast, but there was another slime enemy there. Huh, for my efforts, I get rewarded with a drinkable pool of water that may or may not be poisonous. I don’t even know if I can drink from it multiple times or if it heals my HP or SP, so it looks like I gotta fight the flower enemy, and I might as well try it out then since I’ll probably be really beat up. Oh great, I got healed back my 9 HP that I lost on Alex and had both characters’ SP go to zero, and I was dumb enough to have an enemy south of the flower chase me close enough to see if I could freeze it like I could with the other enemy after resting. So, I’m starting a fight with 0 SP allies against weak enemies that will probably not be so weak by the time I can get started on fighting. Oh good, we can drink the water infinitely for 20 HP at the loss of 3 SP. I’ll be sure to keep a high amount of SP and low HP before I think about drinking more.

Ok, since I know that HP pool is there, and I accidentally triggered a cutscene that led me to an SP pool that isn’t harmful, I’ll just fight everything to make the first boss more manageable. Yes, I noticed that the water from the SP pool can fill my empty bottle if I drank the milk, but after doing so, it’s honestly a downgrade. I’m sure way later in the game, reducing SP consumption by 75% for 2 turns would be nice, but a full HP and SP heal outside of battle to one ally sounds way better, so I’m going to not use my milk again in this second round of going through the ruins and hope that the milk doesn’t spoil by the start of the adult arc. :P

As I was fighting the boss that starts off with Arya for a few turns before Alex gets to her, I noticed that it evaded one of Alex’s Headshot drives. That means I have two RNG chances to hit or not. If my hit accuracy succeeds and the enemy’s evade fails, I hit. If my hit accuracy succeeds and the enemy’s evade succeeds, it evades my hit. If my hit accuracy fails, I miss. I was never a fan of RNG chances of hitting the enemy or not. I prefer always hitting unless I get a debuff, like Blind, or the enemy gets a buff to make me always miss. It’s just fine tuning strategy versus luck.

Finally met up with Cieran, and there’s a grammar error in his text of, “...there’s plenty of monsters…” It should be, “...there are plenty of monsters…” because “monsters” is plural, so you use “are” instead. Besides that, Cieran’s got some charisma for a villain, and I like that.

Ok, Arya’s father is a douchebag no matter what future the game has. Hope adult Arya shows him the backside of her hand one day.

So, you’re telling me Myra accidentally tripped over a rock and broke her legs? Or the pillar of light happened to break her legs after she just twisted her ankle? Either one of these reasons sounds kind of like a diabolus ex machina for why Myra is handicapped.

Alright, I feel like the ending to this childhood arc ended off in a cliffhanger way with many questions, and even though they probably will get answered in the adult arc, I prefer endings to arcs with no questions remaining, so the next arc builds on top of everything already established instead of repairing broken foundations (a.k.a. questions) while building over them. As far as the whole survival aspect, I definitely felt it in the first dungeon, but in the second dungeon, it wasn’t much of a problem thanks to all the SP-free damage items (Rocks) and the early HP pool.

At the very start of the adult arc, I’m seeing what looks like a battle victory screen for a text-based RPG. Why is this happening when your childhood arc opening was solid? The first arc quickly laid down the character you’re controlling, the problem you need to solve, and a general setting in less than half a minute. Why am I looking at a battle victory screen? I don’t care if it’s for doing certain things in the prologue, of which I’m now regretting not picking up the Big Stick weapon, the actual intro should come first, and once that’s done, you’re free to load the player with goodies.

So far, the intro is looking good. It’s what I was expecting to see first. However, you had another grammar error with, “If it weren’t for that letter,” when it should read, “If it wasn’t for that letter,” because “weren’t” is plural and “wasn’t” is singular.

Now that I have control, it’s time to check if I’m still rocking all the items from the childhood arc… THE MILK AND BOTTLE ARE GONE!? All my raspberries and candy are gone, too!? NOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Ok, seriously, though, I know it makes sense for them, except the bottle, to be gone after 9 years, but gameplay-wise, it makes the childhood arc not as rewarding as I thought it’d be. Really, the only things that matter are certain actions completed, such as finding the Slingshot, defeating the Devourer, etc, and Arya’s level since that carries over. Story-wise, you’d think Zero would be at a much higher level after fighting so many monsters as she described, but nope. She’s still level 3 for me. So, you know what that means? I’m gonna replay the game again, fight everything since healing items be damned to have the most levels, and get that dang Big Stick weapon to see if I get a reward for that in the adult arc. Be right back.

I said I’d be right back, but I noticed that after resting at the red flower in the first dungeon, Alex’s SP was not fully restored. His SP was at 0, and afterwards, it went to 10, but he should’ve gotten 12 since that’s his max SP. I don’t know if it matters, but I had the Hero’s Band and Slingshot equipped on him at the time. Also, if you try going left at the place where Arya reminds Alex that there’s a flower enemy to alarm him, the same cutscene will trigger again, even if the enemies there are defeated. If you’re trying to replicate this, I went to where the exit of the room was, but I didn’t go through yet because I picked up a rock and thought to re-explore the room in case I missed any, and I triggered this. I tried going back to the exit, still not going through it to the next room, and came back to the lower right portion of the cutscene trigger area, and guess what? The same cutscene happened.

After a bit of grinding in the 2nd dungeon, Arya leveled up to 4 and had her max HP go from 50 to 43… Why did this happen? Level ups are supposed to be beneficial. Why am I being slightly punished?

So, I’m back now… I don’t get anything for finding the Big Stick, but I did get 2 more Acid Flasks for defeating both Devourers, so that was hopefully worth the 3rd replay. Also, Zero is still level 3 instead of 4 even though I ended the childhood arc with Arya at level 4… Why am I at a lower level?

Upon examining the gravestone in Haven, it had the text, “...the flowers one the stone...” which should have “on” instead of “one,” so another typo.

Just this short introduction to Isaac’s character already got me liking him a lot. From the childhood arc, I liked Alex the most, Myra the second most, and then Arya came next. However, it took me until defeating the mandatory boss before confronting Cieran that I came to liking Alex, so immediately liking Isaac is a big step up in making outstanding characters. Great theme song for him, too, if this is his theme. Also, I’m really glad he pointed out how dumb “Zero” sounds as a name.

So, the apothecary is removed in the Heaven or Hell mode, but I still have access to shopping there. Perhaps I’m just not allowed to synthesize anything if that’s even a function?

There’s a cutscene dedicated for why Zero doesn’t want to pick up Raspberries outside of the apothecary, BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN I DON’T WANT TO! 2 uses of 4 SP, Zero! Just cuz you’re stronger, doesn’t mean that you should ignore something useful! From a story and gameplay perspective, this is horrible, and I’m not sure why you made it like this. I don’t care if 4 SP is a tiny bit of SP later in the game. Right now, it’s still pretty damn useful when Zero just has 14 SP. It saves a turn of guarding for SP since I could use Raspberries outside of battle to get SP back. That one turn could mean everything for all I know.

So, I walk past what looks like a pit north of the west cell block to try and dodge an enemy in pursuit, and all of a sudden, another enemy pops out from the pit and ambushes me before I can move. Totally fair dungeon making. Not.

The game said I got 1 Adrenaline Shot item from examining the rightmost Watchful Guard sprite in the room east of the room I just described above, but I didn’t actually get 1 Adrenaline Shot.

In the emergency switch room, there’s a hole you have to go through by the Flame Idol item to get back to the entrance, but when you try going back that way to see if it’s possible to skip an enemy, it’s apparently impassable from the entrance side. That doesn’t make sense. If you can go through completely, that means you have to be able to fit through on either end. Now, if the hole was really steep instead of horizontal, then I can understand because it might be hard to climb a steep hole but easy to slide down from the Flame Idol side, but if you’re just squeezing through, it should be possible either end you choose from.

I camped at the first opportunity I got when Isaac explained it, and I was surprised to find more dialogue with the Talk option for him every time you picked it until the third time instead of just one text box repeated as many times you pick Talk. It was a breath of fresh air. I really like the camp soundtrack, too.

Ok, this is some serious BS with the red-cloaked monsters that hurt you if you run into them or examine them, and there’s a sign that tells you to find the real one, and it’s not clear on how you’re supposed to figure out which is the real one, if I even am supposed to, so I just ignored all of them and went straight to the key activating circle, which spawned a maze of these red riding hood annoyances. What’s the point of making the player slowly traverse through a narrow hallway? There’s no challenge since you just make sure you move correctly. It’s just tedious. They spelled “NO” around the exiting magic circle, so I feel like I’m in trouble...

I finally got out of Purgatory for the first time, and the whole first visit felt like the first dungeon of the childhood arc, excluding all the jukes that I could do since there were so many fast enemies and narrow hallways that forced me into fights. The boss right before leaving was… challenging, and I feel like the RNG loot of Eyeballs that deal more than normal damage to the OriginRejection was unfair in terms of if some players didn’t get that many of them, the fight would’ve been more annoying with taking more weaker hits to win. I don’t know how I should feel about the False Hero dealing 36 HP over and over to Isaac before hitting Zero just once before dying made me feel good about using an entire stack of a First Aid Kit to heal 36 HP to Isaac.

After returning to Haven from Purgatory for the first time, the Annoyed Adventurer says, “If I didn’t have an Arm Bandages, I’d have been toast.” Just omit the “an” part because “Arm Bandages” isn’t singular.

If I talked to Abie before entering Purgatory for the first time, she’d say that everything has a discount until I come back from Purgatory, so after I decided to buy 1 Adrenaline Shot since it looked like the most expensive and useful item that could’ve been discounted at the time, but when I came back to check how it’s normally priced, it’s literally the same, 85 Marks. Don’t put important text, like a store discount, if you’re not going to implement it in the coding or have Abie confess it was a lie. It’s scamming the player.

Myra came back, and I still like her character with this strong introduction to her as an adult, but I gotta say, I don’t like how her crafting system is only with the blacksmith. I thought she’d craft wherever you were, which would make Purgatory a lot more manageable. Something else I dislike with her crafting is that I need Miasma Samples for some of the bomb items. I sold all of mine before getting into the craft menu because the item description for Miasma Samples said to sell it. It didn’t say anything else that could imply that it’d be useful for crafting, like how the other crafting items had “Regent” in the descriptions. Again, this is scamming the player with misleading info.

Speaking of misleading info, I went into the unused apartment building, and Zero said it was dark, so she needed a light source before going in deeper. In Purgatory, Zero said she had a lantern, even though the inventory didn’t say that, so WTF!? I could’ve used that lantern in that apartment to get the Cold Heart relic, which would make mincemeat out of the OriginRejection boss since it was a guaranteed, not RNG dropped, ice damaging item.

Do I really have to point out how weird a reusable bomb can light itself based on your mind focusing is? Not to mention how it conveniently doesn’t hurt the user? And why we don’t just use this for battle instead of other items? Why doesn’t it affect enemies on the field?

Oooooh, so Myra can craft in Purgatory, but only when we make camp. That’s more like it. I wish she made it more obvious that was the case, but whatever. Anyway, I’m seeing many duplicate items to make in her crafting menu… A lot of them have 0’s. Why would I make an item that has no usages left?

I see a crack in the wall, examines it, reads text about a strong force to break it open, and I use the bomb on it. I get rewarded with a forced enemy fight, 1 Adrenaline Shot, and 2 Air Crystals! Not worth the effort in my opinion. In fact, it’s pretty trollish. You know why? I leave the room that had the items to refight the other enemy that was guarding the narrow path before getting to this crack in the wall. So, really, it’s two forced fights for these items.

Alright, I’m stuck, stumped, and furious over OriginFury. I don’t know where the hell I’m supposed to go to find Snuggy’s legs if I’m still supposed to do that. I have no idea where Zero thinks a path should be made. This boss is fast, tanky, and whenever we run from it after dealing a certain amount of damage, I can only run one space away before it catches me if it’s blocking my way in a narrow path. I’m not about to go running around a cramped dungeon looking for who-knows-what while ramming my face against a brick wall, a.k.a. OriginFury.

So, long story short, I did finish the childhood arc but not the adult arc. To be frank, I didn’t think I could take much more of this game. Stealth/skillfully running away from enemies in dungeons quickly turned into getting forced into a fight or picking the path with the least amount of enemies to battle. Resources felt too scarce and combative attempts to achieve some resources felt unrewarding. The only thing that really kept me going was the mostly colorful cast of characters. Soundtracks ranged from immersive to very repetitive.

Posts

Hey, thanks for taking the time to write all this! Sorry you couldn't make it all the way through to the end. I'm still rather proud of how the story concludes, so it's a shame you couldn't make it through.

Heaven or Hell mode was designed specifically for people who have beaten the game once, know what to expect, and can prepare accordingly. Without the apothecary, yeah, resources are going to be uncomfortably scarce. That was the idea, and that's why Heaven or Hell mode wasn't recommended for first-time playthroughs. If I could go back and do it all again, I would have put that mode as an unlock after completing the game, but it is what it is now. I'm sorry that was even an option for first time players.

How did you talk to Abie if you were on Heaven or Hell mode? I see that you restarted the game once, but I didn't see where you mention anything about changing the difficulty. The door to the apothecary is locked in Heaven or Hell mode, so you shouldn't have been able to enter the building at all, let alone talk to him. You can enter the Blacksmith's shop, though, which is where crafting can be done. Was there some confusion as to which shop did what?

You're not the first person to quit during the Origin.FURY chase and, looking back, I definitely see how I could've conveyed the intended destination better. Especially when under pressure of the chase. I'm sorry that was the point where you gave up. For reference: The ice wall in the northwest room can be bombed during the chase to create the path you were looking for.

Anyway, thanks again for the review! I appreciate you making note of specific spelling, grammatical, and other technical errors, but I'll likely not be addressing them. I've shelved this game and am now putting all my efforts into the sequel, Prayer of the Faithless. If I were to ever come back to Soul Sunder, it would be on a larger scale than a few minor updates.

I feel somewhat culpable here, since I think I was a contributing factor to there being a Heaven or Hell mode.

I'm also a little curious about this "hardest mode first" approach, since I rarely nudge the difficulty slider out of its recommended setting when going blind into a moderate-time-commitment rpg, and I generally try to play the intended game mode since it's closest to the intended game experience.

Anyway, in the second act you're supposed to be tougher and be able to pick fights sometimes with monsters, but it sounds like Heaven Or Hell punishes that too much with its difficulty spike, and that probably does a weird thing to the gameplay loop where you're being de-incentivized and incentivized to do the same thing at the same time. A possible fix might be to crank the exp gain in Heaven Or Hell, therefor making the extra tough combats worth it, but it sounds like in the meantime the best bet might be to avoid Heaven Or Hell on first time playthroughs.

I mean, this is all good and stuff, but you should really think about the way you present your review. Instead of a stream-of-consciousness commentary, maybe you should categorize, form general opinions, and present them in a way that's digestible. Because all I see is scribbles and nit-picks.

A quick scan of your review and I read about picking one berry from a four-berry bush is "ludonarrative dissonance"? Small typos and frustration over supposed logical inconsistencies that are explained later? I'm struggling to see what made you so frustrated as to call this a 1-star game.

Maybe think about how you convey your opinions before writing a review, because this is really messy and it feels like you took very little time or effort to organise your thoughts before conveying them. And as a critique of a game that took months to create, that comes across to me as disrespectful, frankly.

It's a valid review, and I can't see how it's disrespectful to put a bunch of time into documenting all that information about the game, even if the layout is just "stuff listed as the player encountered it."

I wouldn't have given Soul Sunder one star for any of the stuff above, but each reviewer is a different person.

I'm a fairly enthusiastic reviewer. I love nearly everything I play.

But it's reasonable for their to be harsh reviewers, too. Ultimately, it'll balance out.

author=kumadaI'm also a little curious about this "hardest mode first" approach, since I rarely nudge the difficulty slider out of its recommended setting when going blind into a moderate-time-commitment rpg, and I generally try to play the intended game mode since it's closest to the intended game experience.

I usually play every Tales game on the hardest difficulty because I've been playing them for over a decade now and am used to how they work. From there, I gauge if the harder difficulty makes me learn the battle system better or if it just means a boost to enemy health and adjust the difficulty accordingly. If difficulty can't be changed mid game, then yeah, I typically go for the "normal" difficulty.

Maybe think about how you convey your opinions before writing a review, because this is really messy and it feels like you took very little time or effort to organise your thoughts before conveying them. And as a critique of a game that took months to create, that comes across to me as disrespectful, frankly.

I don't feel disrespected from this review. Their frustrations and eventual reasons for quitting were perfectly valid. I've improved quite a bit as a developer since releasing this game, and there are some interesting points MLG_Wannabee brought up that I can make use of in future projects, so I'm overall glad I read it. Plus, even without the stream of consciousness, it still clears the minimum 300 word requirement for a review to be submitted.

Also, it took me over a year to make this game, not just months. I spent a few months designing the game before even submitting the page to RMN.

Personally, I don't have a problem with the stream of consciousness nature of this review or the criticisms.

I just find it very lamentable for a game to be judged on a bonus mode meant for people who already beat the game. I think if I implement a mode like this in one of my games in the future, I'll lock modes like this behind a global switch that actually requires you to beat the game once.

author=Red_NovaHow did you talk to Abie if you were on Heaven or Hell mode?The door to the apothecary is locked in Heaven or Hell mode, so you shouldn't have been able to enter the building at all, let alone talk to him.

You're not the first person to quit during the Origin.FURY chase and, looking back, I definitely see how I could've conveyed the intended destination better. Especially when under pressure of the chase. I'm sorry that was the point where you gave up. For reference: The ice wall in the northwest room can be bombed during the chase to create the path you were looking for.

The door wasn't locked for me. I just went in like any other door. I'm sure it was the apothecary since it only had healing items, and it was on Heaven or Hell mode. I can make a video of it if you're still interested in seeing it happen if you can't replicate it. I had a feeling that ice wall looked too suspicious for its own good, but I did use the bomb when I first came across it but not during the chase because I thought, "If it can't be bombed then, it wouldn't make sense for it to be bombed now."

author=kumadaI'm also a little curious about this "hardest mode first" approach, since I rarely nudge the difficulty slider out of its recommended setting when going blind into a moderate-time-commitment rpg, and I generally try to play the intended game mode since it's closest to the intended game experience.

I just have a lot of experience with fine tuning gameplay in most RPGs to min-max stuff, which accidentally ends up making the games I play too easy, even in a blind playthrough. I exploited the hell out of Persona 5's first dungeon to make it so I could avoid fighting every optional battle but still win all the forced fights on Hard Mode, which is technically the hardest difficulty unless you count in the DLC difficulty, Merciless. As proof, here's a video.

author=CashmereCatInstead of a stream-of-consciousness commentary, maybe you should categorize, form general opinions, and present them in a way that's digestible. Because all I see is scribbles and nit-picks.

If it weren't for these scribbles and nit-picks, there wouldn't be any minor detail refinement tips added for the main substance of the game or future games.

The door wasn't locked for me. I just went in like any other door. I'm sure it was the apothecary since it only had healing items, and it was on Heaven or Hell mode. I can make a video of it if you're still interested in seeing it happen if you can't replicate it.

If you could just send me your save file, I can actually run all the tests I need to figure out what happened.

author=Red_NovaIf you could just send me your save file, I can actually run all the tests I need to figure out what happened.

Do you have an email I can send the save file? I'm not sure how I can do that on this site. Also, I have good/bad news. I gave Soul Sunder a second chance, and I beat it on Heaven or Hell mode without much difficulty past the OriginFury chase. That was the good news. Bad news is that I still feel the same about the game because of the way I was able to survive via exploits instead of strategies for the most part. Battles had plenty of strategy, sure, but avoiding enemies on the field didn't have that much. Basically, I manipulated the A.I. on enemy pathing to make them do ring-around-the-rosie with me and any hole/body of water/rock formation, so they try following me clockwise (for example), and I just keep going clockwise slow enough until I'm where the enemy was standing idle while the chasing enemy is stuck on the opposite corner of whatever I put between us. There were plenty of times where I couldn't do that with narrow paths that I had to go for the plot progression, but for those battles, it was ok because there were so few of them between campsites that I almost never needed to use healing items after battle.As far as story goes (I got the Rebirth Ending; don't know if that matters a whole lot), I felt like it didn't have enough going for it while the potential was ripe. *Spoilers below for those*

I didn't get enough world building for why the terminus gates leak miasma. Even if that was just there as an explanation for why there are monsters in the world, there needs to be a reason for why terminus gates are even a thing. There could've easily been lore on people discovering terminus gates, trying to bury them/contain them, failing at that, and make reasons for why people don't just put kiyomas all around terminus gates, but I never found anyone or any bookshelf detailing this.

According to Myra, Arya's father was so depressed about his daughter not coming home, so instead of GOING TO FIND HER, he told Myra, a GIRL IN A WHEELCHAIR, to find Arya for him right before committing suicide. And that scene that Myra said this was supposed to be sad for Zero? I don't know, but I just dislike Arya's father even more because he wasn't willing to risk his life to find his own daughter. That's true love. Not asking someone handicapped to do it for him.

I stopped liking Cieran once I learned more and more about him. In the stratum that we learn about his memories, I immediately got reminded of Cecil from Final Fantasy IV from how Cieran's past seemed like. Uh, spoilers for FFIV incoming...

Cecil was told by his king to go to a town with a ring to take the town's magic crystal. Cecil, the loyal knight as he was, did what he was told. Once he arrived in the town, the ring unleashed hell on the town, killing everyone except one girl, Rydia. Cecil felt betrayed by his king, vowed to avenge the town by going back to the king for answers, and along the way, he took in Rydia under his care since he felt sorry for her. Sounds similar to Cieran's situation, huh? However, past the above is where Cecil and Cieran's backgrounds start to shift. There was a time that Rydia was thought to be dead, but Cecil didn't mope to the point of contemplating suicide. He continued living. Cecil returned to the first town he had to steal a magic crystal from before the town I mentioned in order to plead for forgiveness. The town elder said he would forgive Cecil only if he laid down the darkness in his soul as a Dark Knight by going up a mountain of trials to become a Paladin, a knight of light. Eventually, Cecil did this, and the first town accepted him for such a feat that many failed to do so in the past. He risked his life to do something that seemed impossible just for another's forgiveness. Cieran just pleaded to a priest and his wife...

Anyway, Cieran went to Purgatory and turned crazy from the Miasma Sickness to practically be an antagonistic puppet. It's not like he had inner motivations to do what he did. His actions were just instinctual to be against Zero and co. I can't even be sympathetic for the guy because he wasn't in total control of his actions once the Miasma Sickness struck. Cieran became a figurehead of antagonism gone wild. No real charisma or understanding to relate with.

Now to talk about the prophecy. I'm very confused about this. Here's what I think happened. Jack, Isaac's dad, thought Isaac and someone else would go to the terminus gate outside of Orias in pursuit of Cieran, and Isaac is supposed to be realized by the terminus gate and become the chosen one who kills off the other child who was with him, but to prevent this prophecy from happening, Jack told Cieran to kill Isaac before he becomes realized as a chosen one. However, Arya also happened to be a chosen one, who gets realized by the terminus gate, and this was unplanned to happen according to Jack. What I don't understand is how Isaac actually fits in the picture because Alex was with Arya, and we know Isaac isn't Alex. Also, if Cieran was supposed to kill Isaac before he was realized by the terminus gate, why didn't he just kill the supposed Isaac when he first entered the ruins? Why did Cieran wait right in front of the terminus gate? Isn't that risking the whole plan by making it more likely for him to be realized since he'd be closer?

Finally, I don't like how every NPC before the final stratum was saying, "You are ready," to Zero. Apparently according to the bonus room, it's up in the air with whether or not Haven and its citizens were also illusions created by Zero's regrets, but... that doesn't explain all the items you get there. If I get a weapon that lets me use an attacking drive on an enemy in purgatory, that drive isn't an illusion since it actually hurt the enemy, which means the weapon that gave the drive isn't an illusion, so there's no way the person I paid marks to is an illusion since said person had to give me the weapon in the first place. Let's say I entertain the idea that everything with Haven was an illusion. I'm pretty sure Zero and co. would be dead from dehydration since there wouldn't be any clean water for them to drink if everything was an illusion. There was no kiyoma anywhere in Haven after all, and there was poisonous water right outside purgatory. I believe I read from some dialogue that miasma, when concentrated enough, will kill all life and degrade everything around it, so all that water we see in Haven might look good, but it might actually be an illusion for poison water. Because of this, it's also very possible that everything after the childhood arc didn't actually happen, and the events of the adult arc is Arya's purgatory before Heaven/Hell/whatever otherworldly place you want to call. Now, let me entertain the idea of Haven being completely real. All those adventurers who supposedly died in Purgatory? They're alive again. Everyone suddenly wanted to say, "You are ready," to Zero one day while staring at her profusely. It's pretty obvious that this alternative is off putting, too, in terms of plot.

In the second to last stratum when you activated the switch, fought Cieran on the rooftop, and had to go back down to the first floor, I went through utter hell trying to get down the stairs because Cieran would force me back, fight me, run away, and I'd try the other staircase. Same thing happened. Then, I thought, maybe this is supposed to happen once on both set of stairs to get at least one more fight with Cieran. Ok, I'll try going down the stairs again. NOPE! I tried looking around the whole room one more time, and there were only two staircases to go down, and I suddenly find Cieran coming at me, so another fight happens, he runs, and I'm confused. That's when I thought, "Maybe I'm supposed to think that I can't go down from the stairs since he's somehow guarding both of them, so I let him come up to fight me, and now that I did, I can go down the stairs!" NOPE! So, I literally spent a minute or so waiting idly next to a staircase to see if I can go down it while Cieran comes from who-knows-where on-screen. Never showed up. So, I wandered for a while and got him to appear. I did the ring around the rosie trick, and was able to go down the stairs. This ate a TON of my healing and attacking items. I almost thought of save scumming, but then, I looked at how many materials I had to make more items, so I decided not to. Was the solution to this "puzzle" supposed to be obvious? I sure didn't understand what I was supposed to do right away, so believe me when I say that I was almost as frustrated as the OriginFury chase scene.

Speaking of crafting items, there was a huge lack of armor crafting compared to weapon and healing/attacking item crafting. I hoarded all my armor to think I could craft some amazing armor, but I never found any armor crafting recipes. Then again, Adventurer's Tunic for +5 SP and Fancy Dress for Encouragement are hard to replace, even if other armor items have better stats. Anyway, this lack of armor crafting felt weird when there's a huge emphasis on crafting everything else.

author=kumada"I mostly needed to use exploits instead of strategies to survive on the hardest difficulty. 1/5 stars"

oh my goodness that is a statement

If you can't take my review seriously solely because I mentioned using exploits to win instead of strategies, think about games that speedrunners use glitches and exploits to get the fastest records. Now think about games that don't have known glitches or exploits. Speedrunners still do those games, even if they can't be cheap about them. In fact, it's usually more of a challenge because they actually have to think about how to legitimately play the game as efficiently as possible. Because there are exploits in this game, I was able to take advantage of them and play the game differently than most people are intended to, and in my opinion, good games shouldn't have such a faulty.

I sometimes find that some exploits make the game more fun. The example I want to bring is using a hex-editor with a Heroes of Might and Magic 2 save-file. I mean, sure, by using a hex-editor, the player would already be considered "cheating", never mind what the actual exploit is. I grant that. However, setting a negative value to the Magic Power stat in conjunction with Armageddon is just... incredibly satisfying.

MLG, your review is valid no matter what. All reviews are based on the reviewer's subjective experience, and that's not a thing that anyone can be wrong about.

That said, your reviewing standard (i.e. games without exploits) is not one I've encountered before, and it seems weird to me.

Earlier you mentioned that you exploited P5's early dungeon to win the game on Hard Mode with an artificially enforced difficulty of avoiding all optional battles. Is P5 a one-star game for you? Does being able to use this exploit lower your impression of P5?

Or let's take a game like Super Mario Bros. Warp pipes are part of the game's design. Using them significantly changes the time of a speedrun, such that there are records with and without warp pipes. Does the existence of warp pipes change your impression of Super Mario Bros.? Does it lower your impression of the game, knowing that the only thing keeping a player from using warp pipes is the choice not to?

author=kumadaEarlier you mentioned that you exploited P5's early dungeon to win the game on Hard Mode with an artificially enforced difficulty of avoiding all optional battles. Is P5 a one-star game for you?

No, I wouldn't say P5 is a one-star game because even though the gameplay exploits or the grinding/perfection necessary for Hard Mode lowered my satisfaction with the game, I will applaud the plot, music, and graphics greatly for what they are. Where gameplay was bleak, everything else was incredible, which is why I would give P5 a 3/5 star rating.

Does being able to use this exploit lower your impression of P5?

Yes, the exploits that I was able to use do lower my impression of P5 because I'd rather be rejected from trying to play the unintended way so I'm forced to play how the devs wanted all their players to play their game with player skill being the determining factor that separates how everyone uniquely plays.

Or let's take a game like Super Mario Bros. Warp pipes are part of the game's design. Using them significantly changes the time of a speedrun, such that there are records with and without warp pipes. Does the existence of warp pipes change your impression of Super Mario Bros.? Does it lower your impression of the game, knowing that the only thing keeping a player from using warp pipes is the choice not to?

I wouldn't call warp pipes in Super Mario Bros exploits because, as you said, they are part of the game design. The developers intentionally placed them in order for people to use them if players found them. In my opinion, exploits would be actions that manipulate or go around the coding/scripts to do things that players are not intended to do. If devs explicitly designed their game to allow sequence breaks, then, I wouldn't call it an exploit since you're playing the game one way that the devs wanted you to play.

Do you have an email I can send the save file? I'm not sure how I can do that on this site.

Upload the file to your locker (highlight your name on the top left of the window, then click Locker from the dropdown menu), and PM me the link.

Glad you managed to finish the game! Sorry to hear your opinion hasn't changed, but it's all good. I (obviously, lol) disagree with your assessment of the story, but if that's what you got out of it, then I'm not gonna fight it.